Clinical Executives Turn to Technology to Address Burnout

Findings from a survey of clinician leaders say that a majority see burnout as their staff’s top morale challenge and that many are planning to use technological innovations to boost it. This burnout goes hand-in-hand with the pressures on our healthcare system before, during, and after COVID-19, and staffing challenges.

Burnout Can Halt Career Fulfillment

“Occupational burnout among care teams is a symptom of systemic factors that erode professional fulfillment; it is important to understand that it is not a mental health condition, and it is not a disease,” said Christine Sinsky, MD, a general internist and vice president for professional satisfaction for the American Medical Association. “Physicians who feel overworked, over scrutinized, or overburdened with bureaucratic tasks too often suffer from a sense that they are neglecting the professional priorities that really matter – their patients.”

The accounting and consulting company BDO USA conducted the survey through HIMSS Market Insights. Between June and July 2023, 153 US clinician leaders, including clinical directors and executive leaders, reported on their organizations’ top challenges and plans to address them.

“Understanding and addressing these hurdles is a crucial part of getting to the heart of clinicians’ satisfaction with their jobs and how they deliver high-quality patient care,” said Elizabeth Koelker, managing director of the BDO Center for Healthcare Excellence & Innovation.

Staffing and Burnout Remain Top Challenges

Survey respondents were asked to list their top three challenges to morale of their care teams. Clinician turnover and understaffing (63%) and compassion fatigue and burnout (61%) were the top two. Koelker noted that “the two are intrinsically linked” and said the findings coalesce with 2023 BDO Healthcare CFO Outlook Survey, which found that 71% of healthcare chief financial officers cited talent shortage as a top threat.

“Doctors and nurses want to spend their time helping patients and advancing the field, but this is often complicated by administrative demands and staffing shortages that leave them feeling low on time, but high in demand. Healthcare organizations must equip them with the processes and technology to focus on what they do best in a way that doesn’t add more to their plates or create confusion,” said Kathy Gersch, chief commercial officer for Kotter International, a change management company that works with healthcare practices.

Can AI Fill the Gaps?

To address these issues over the next 12 months, 54% of respondents said they plan to implement systems that improve effectiveness and efficiency that involve automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to handle some of the tasks. In addition, 51% said they plan to fill clinician staffing gaps by increasing automation of patient communications and 48% plan to offer patients more telemedicine options. In applying these results to their work, Koelker said each clinician leader must assess the underlying causes of burnout within their practices and find the best ways to address them.

“There are a number of ways that technology can help make an immediate difference in the roles of clinicians – from optimizing electronic health record systems, automating certain patient communications, scheduling, and charting, offering telemedicine options, using AI for predictive staffing, to using apps that enable providers to pick up or release shifts,” she said.

Strategically deploying these technologies is critical, as the third-highest morale challenge reported in the survey was challenges using digital solutions (39%). The survey states that, “healthcare leaders should also reconsider their integration strategy and change management plans. Otherwise, newly adopted technology could actually worsen clinician burnout.”

“When technology is introduced into healthcare workflows it is important to ensure that the technology is serving the physicians and other clinical staff, rather than the other way around. Too often clinicians recognize that they are serving the technology, often at the expense of their ability to provide undivided attention to their patients,” said Dr. Sinsky of the AMA.

Ray Page, DO, PhD, is president of The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Fort Worth, TX.

Dr. Page said his practice has explored many technologies to optimize cancer care and improve patient satisfaction. However, he noted these technologies have not necessarily been designed for clinician well-being and over the past decade, they “have a plethora of practice management technologies that we are throwing at all the policy-induced woes of cancer care delivery, yet burnout scores are much worse.”

“There is always a lot of chatter how these tools will improve the lives of the physician,” he explained. “In reality, I think most have been unsuccessful, if not exacerbating the burnout problem. There is a paucity of data on the impact of new practice tools specifically on clinician wellbeing.”

It All Comes Back to Growing the Physician Workforce

Koelker added said that the most important long-term solution that healthcare leaders need to focus on is attracting and retaining new clinicians. Data published in 2021 by the Association of American Medical Colleges projected a shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians by 2034. Practices are working to address this by expanding their care teams with more advanced practice professionals, including nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants, and many medical societies are working to diversify and grow the physician pipeline.

“Perhaps that looks like creating partnerships with local colleges and universities for training or working with high school students to attract them to the field before they decide on their next steps,” said Koelker. “Healthcare leaders will also need to consider the compensation and benefits they’re offering, and whether they’re competitive enough to attract and retain top talent for the long haul.”

With technology, Dr. Sinsky said, “It is too early to tell” whether tools like telehealth or generative AI solutions for patient portal communications will ultimately help or undermine practice efficiency and relationships with patients.

“Most physicians can tell you that this is both an exciting time and also a challenging time as we navigate emerging technology in medicine. It’s impossible to predict exactly how – and how many – technological innovations emerging today will truly transform how we care for patients,” she said.

Dr. Page reported associated research funding from AstraZeneca, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Incyte, Genentech, and Seagen.